El Foro Social

Thousands of participants and organizations from around the americas decended on the San Carlos Univisity in Guatemala City last week for the social forum. One of the raddest things were the many new murals and graffitti that sprang up all over campus that week. Some art and politics displayed themselves on the security doors of Zona Una shops but I didn´t catch those on camera.

Hasta La Victoria,

Kristina

Un desfile

Oh yes, it is a building sized praying mantis. For some reason last night a parade of giant motorized bug puppets roamed the streets of San Christobal to techno music. The artists were a Catalan performance group from Barcelona.

At the end, the giant mantis had a fight with the giant ant and killed it. Symbolically anyway, it turned off its lights and stopped moving.

Dear Debbie,
This morning finds me in Huehuetenango with Clare, a friend from La Escuela. She is changing her plane ticket next to me as I type because yesturday we decieded to spend the week in Chiapas. So a couple lovely days in San Christobal and then next weekend I am headed back to Xela! This should be interesting since I had no plans to go to Mexico or actually to enjoy the thrills of border crossing.

The Foro was exhilerating and edventually exhausting. I knit during a couple conferenses after giving up on being able to understand. On the final day I had a mental breakthrough and understood a presentation on Dams and hydroelectric mega projects that bulldoze their way through communities and the ways the communities are organizing to protect their land.

An hour later, equally unexplainable as the breakthrough, my brain shut down and refused entry to any spanish comprehension.

I can´t leave guatemala

Dear Debbie,
After a month of language school, I am in Guate at the Foro Social Américas. In typical foro style, events are changed, start late and all overlap. I think I have spent half the time pouring over my list of conferences trying to figure out which one to attend. I have been collecting as much free propaganda from the various luchas as I can get my hot little hands on. The University of San Carlos is beautiful and the only public university in Guatemala. I heard that it is as cheap as Q80 a month to attend and the majority of classes are held at night and on weekends since most students have jobs. There have been demonstrations on campus also this week to protest plans to privatize and raise the costs of the University.

In other news I have changed my ticket to Ecuador in order to stay longer in Guatemala, my plan is to spend more time at the language school where I have fallen in love with the community.

here are some pictures to make up for being out of touch.